FCC's Net Neutrality Proposal a Win For Broadband Cos

The Federal Communications Commission is prepared to release a revised set of rules concerning the governance of web traffic. The proposal, which is expected to make an official appearance Thursday, would prevent broadband providers from discriminating against certain web sites and/or content, but it would also allow broadband providers to give select companies and their traffic preferential treatment. The preferential treatment must be made at "commercially reasonable" rates that are available to all content companies, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. The FCC would examine such arrangements to ensure that their terms are in fact favorable. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has decided not to reclassify broadband as a utility, which would give the FCC greater control over the market. Wheeler did, however, leave the possibility on the table. The FCC also wants greater transparency from broadband providers so consumers can more easily suss out details pertinent to their local service, such as speed and congestion. Last, the Journal reports that wireless broadband companies won't be subject to this proposal for now, but Wheeler is questioning if they should be allowed to make similar arrangements with content companies. Net Neutrality supporters prefer the idea that all web traffic is treated equally, with none held back or treated preferentially. The FCC's proposal won't be voted on until May, and will then require several more steps before it can become law.

Does the FCC need to be told, by both the courts and the Congress, that they don't have the authority to regulate the Internet before they get the message? This is now the fourth time that the FCC has attempted to grant itself the authority to regulate the Internet after being smacked down by Congress and the courts in the three previous attempts.

If the FCC can just given itself new authority based on nothing, what's to stop other government agencies from doing the same? Who needs actual laws when agencies can just grant themselves the authority to do whatever the hell they like?

There is exactly the same amount of legal authority to regulate the Internet, as Obama has to cancel the 2016 presidential election and declare himsel...(continues)

I'm sure lawyers more informed on constitutional law looked at the appeals court ruling and amended the proposal accordingly to make it legal. And this is a win for the consumers. Now instead of slowing traffic to particular sites at peak hours they c...(continues)

That wireless carriers deliver data over the airways, and thus are under the jurisdiction of the FCC. Their prior proposals were thrown out for overreaching, but not because they had no jurisdiction whatsoever. Your Obama analogy is not only in poor t...(continues)

This part but it would also allow broadband providers to give select companies and their traffic preferential treatment

is what scares me the most out of all of this. So lets say ISP makes a deal with Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix that their traffic will become first class citizen that just hurt everyone else traffic on the internet from that ISP.

For example, I might want to stream youtube or Hulu but because its during peak hours and Netflix and Facebook and Twitter have all the bandwidth my connection to any other site could become so slow to be usable. I know this is an extreme case but it is what I'm scared this could happen because of greed.